President Reagan's 1987 visit was his second in five years. It came at a time of heightened East-West tensions, caused in particular by the debate over the stationing of short range American missiles in Europe and the United States' record peacetime defense buildup.[5] Reagan was scheduled to attend the 1987 G-7 summit meeting in Venice, Italy, and later made a brief stop in Berlin.[6]

Throughout his presidency Reagan was a very controversial figure in West Germany, and on the day before his visit, 50,000 people had demonstrated against the presence of the American president in the Berlin. During the visit itself, wide swaths of Berlin were shut off hermetically from the event. The leftist district of Kreuzberg, in particular, was targeted in this respect, with movement throughout this portion of the city in effect restrained completely (for instance the subway line 1 was shut down).[7]

The Brandenburg Gate site was chosen to highlight the President's conviction that Western democracy offered the best hope to open the Berlin Wall.[2] His speech focused on a series of political initiatives to achieve this end. The famous "tear down this wall" phrase was intended as the logical conclusion of the President's proposals. As the speech was being drafted, inclusion of the words became a source of considerable controversy within the Reagan administration. Several senior staffers and aides advised against the phrase, saying anything that might cause further East-West tensions or potential embarrassment to Gorbachev, with whom President Reagan had built a good relationship, should be omitted. American officials in West Germany and presidential speechwriters, including Peter Robinson, thought otherwise. Robinson traveled to West Germany to inspect potential speech venues, and gained an overall sense that the majority of West Berliners opposed the wall. Despite getting little support for suggesting Reagan demand the wall's removal, Robinson kept the phrase in the speech text. On May 18, 1987, President Reagan met with his speechwriters and responded to the speech by saying, "I thought it was a good, solid draft." White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker objected, saying it sounded "extreme" and "unpresidential," and Deputy US National Security Advisor Colin Powell agreed. Nevertheless, Reagan liked the passage, saying, "I think we'll leave it in."[8]

Chief speechwriter Anthony R. Dolan gives another account of the line's origins, however, attributing it directly to Reagan. In an article published in The Wall Street Journal in November 2009, Dolan gives a detailed account of how in an Oval Office meeting that was prior to Robinson's draft Reagan came up with the line on his own. He records vivid impressions of his own reaction and Robinson's at the time.[9] This led to a friendly exchange of letters between Robinson and Dolan over their differing accounts, which The Wall Street Journal published.[10][11]

We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall![13]

A section of the wall mentioned in the speech.

Later on in his speech, President Reagan said, "As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German unity, I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner, 'This wall will fall. Beliefs become reality.' Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom."[13]

Another highlight of the speech was Reagan's call to end the arms race with his reference to the Soviets' SS-20 nuclear weapons, and the possibility "not merely of limiting the growth of arms, but of eliminating, for the first time, an entire class of nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth."[2]

The speech received "relatively little coverage from the media", Time magazine reported 20 years later.[14] Communists were critical of the speech,[1] and the Soviet press agency Tass accused Reagan of giving an "openly provocative, war-mongering speech."[2]

Twenty-nine months later, on November 9, 1989, after increasing public unrest, East Germany finally opened the Berlin Wall. By the end of the year, official operations to dismantle the wall began. With the collapse of the Communist governments of Eastern Europe and, eventually, the Soviet Union itself, the tearing down of the wall epitomized the collapse for history. In September 1990, Reagan, no longer President, returned to Berlin, where he personally took a few symbolic hammer swings at a remnant of the Berlin Wall.[15]

Former West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said he would never forget standing near Reagan when he challenged Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. "He was a stroke of luck for the world, especially for Europe."[16] However, even though the speech is considered one of Reagan’s most memorable and influential speeches, there is much dispute about how much influence and impact his words have had on the German people. It is largely felt in Germany that this speech had next to no effect on the course of events in either the Soviet Union or the German Democratic Republic, which are both thought to have met their ends largely for economic reasons.[citation needed] Because the media did not focus on the speech during the time due to the unknown impact the tearing down of the wall would bring, most Americans did not know about the speech’s important phrase.[17] In an interview with Reagan himself, he recalls the East German police not allowing people to get near the wall, which prevented the citizens from experiencing the speech at all.[17] The fact that West German police acted in a similar way has however seldom been noted in accounts such as these.

Finally, despite his famous lines that challenges Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, there is little evidence that Reagan’s speech has had any impact on even the decision behind tearing down the wall let alone the people he addresses.[17] A 2012 article in the Atlantic points out many of the reasons for the tendency for American media to focus on the significance of this particular speech, without weighing the complexity of the events as they unfolded in both East and West Germany and the Soviet Union.[18] Despite this, the speech is remembered by some as an important moment in Cold War history.[8]

Peter Robinson, the White House wordsmith who drafted the address, said its most famous line was inspired by a conversation with Ingeborg Elz of West Berlin who had remarked in a conversation with him, "If this man Gorbachev is serious with his talk of Glasnost and perestroika he can prove it by getting rid of this wall."[19] However, the words “tear down this wall” are remembered as the speech’s most influential element, and the message and goal of the speech is what formulated Reagan’s greatest legacy as a true influencer and communicator. Instead of using intimidation tactics against the Soviets like many other leaders, Reagan peacefully tested Gorbachev’s intentions and complimented him on his goals for Perestroika and Glasnost during his speech. With his delivery of the speech, Reagan earned Gorbachev's trust and gained his inspiration to decide on the Berlin Wall’s fate.[17]